Abou Mrad, Nidaa

Classical Oriental | Lebanon

Nidaa Abou Mrad is one of the rare upholders of the Arab Near-Eastern classical music tradition, related to the modal system of maqâm. He is a violinist and improviser of a renowned talent, as well as a composer in the traditional style. He is a musicologist and the Director of the High Institute of Music at the Antonine University (Lebanon). As a scholar and as the Director of the Ensemble of Classical Arab Music, he revivaled two unique corpus of melodies written by Safiy a-d-Dîn al-Urmawî, from the Abbasid Era, and by Mikhâ’îl Mashshâqa from the early Nahda Era (Arabic renaissance of the 19th century).